I am Clodagh McOnie, one of Merlins students from Newquay, Cornwall and I trained with Merlin back in November 2021. I have had previous training in Russian volume however I wanted to expand my knowledge and as I have been using Merlins amazing lash products for a long time when I knew she was a trainer I knew I had to go to her as she is such a perfectionist with her brand.

I travelled to her in London and she was so warm and lovely straight away, I immediately felt comfortable and I knew I had picked the right person. Her studio was beautifully set up and I was even given a bag with so many lash goodies in there to try out, every single detail was so thought out which I really appreciated.

We started the training by having a very chilled chat getting to know each other, our backgrounds, lifestyles and our hobbies etc and how we got into lashes. Then we jumped straight into it, starting the course by stripping it back to the history of eyelash extensions.

I was very unaware of how important it is to know the history of the treatments that you specialise in and it was so interesting. We covered what I have previously learnt and the importance of layering and mapping but I specifically approached Merlin with a list of certain things that I wanted to cover in the course and to perfect.

Merlins courses are very versatile as she made the course bespoke for me however still managed to tie in all of her original material in the course. The practical element of the course was so helpful and hands on as I am left handed and had got into some of my own habits, Merlin helped guide me and showed me all of the other aspects that makes you feel comfortable when lashing for example, stool height, body positioning and hand placement when fanning and although it felt unfamiliar to me, I could feel that I was unnecessarily making it harder for myself which I didn’t initially realise until she observed me and corrected me.

We tried a variety of difference approaches to find ones that worked perfectly for me. Then it was time for me to work on a model, she showed me how to position the lights and take the perfect photograph for the before and after pictures and tips to get the best content to promote your work which was very helpful.

We then prepped the client and the application on the client was very closely followed by Merlin, showing me demonstrations along the way and suggesting the different things for me to try. Merlin was with me every step of the way, any questions I had she was there to lead me in the right direction.

I came to Merlin as I was feeling a little lost in my lash journey and after leaving the course, I felt so refreshed and like a brand new lash artist. I was so excited to get back to work and to try out the new skills and techniques on my clients that Merlin had shown me, it had sparked a fire inside of me that was missing and I am so grateful for that and now I have the pleasure of meeting and training with her I know I will always have her support, no matter what. 😊